Senior Sri Lankan monk arrested for alleged child sex crimes

A prominent Buddhist monk has been arrested in Sri Lanka for allegedly sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl, in the highest-profile case involving a local religious leader.

Authorities took 71-year-old Pallegama Hemarathana into custody on Saturday from a private hospital in the capital, Colombo, where he had checked in for treatment as a criminal probe against him progressed.

The chief prelate of Colombo, Hemarathana is accused of committing the abuse in 2022 in a highly venerated temple in Anuradhapura.

Authorities said the victim’s mother has also been arrested for aiding and abetting the monk.

“We will be guided by the magistrate on further action,” a police statement said Saturday.

Hemarathana, who had been subject to a foreign travel ban, was detained on the orders of the chief magistrate in Anuradhapura, after child protection authorities cited complaints of delays in his arrest, reported Sri Lanka’s Daily News. It said the court instructed police to arrest Hemarathana and bring him before the court “without delay”.

In addition to his position in Colombo, the monk is the chief of eight highly venerated temples that are on a key Buddhist pilgrimage route. He is also the chief custodian of a tree believed to have been grown from a sapling of the Bodhi tree in India that sheltered the Buddha when he attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.

There have been several cases of clergy abusing children in Sri Lanka, but the latest arrest involves the most senior monk to be accused of such a crime.

Last month, 22 monks were arrested at Colombo’s international airport after 110kg (242lbs) of cannabis were found hidden in their bags, in what was the biggest drug smuggling discovery ever in the facility.